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Tips for Evaluating Your Child's Classroom
Most schools offer an open house or Back-to-School Night for families after school begins. Any opportunity for families to get into the school provides a chance for them to learn about their child's school and classroom. Reading Rockets provides these tips for identifying signs that your child is in a place where good reading instruction can take place.
As your child's teacher and principal are talking, listen for information about:
- The classroom schedule. Effective classrooms offer a 90-120 minute uninterrupted block of time for language arts instruction.
- Assessments. Good teachers use the information they gather from assessments to plan instruction. As the teacher describes the assessments, it should be clear how that information is used to plan lessons just right for your child.
- Home-school communication. Teachers and families need to be in touch throughout the year. Whether it's through a folder, notebook or daily learning log, you should hear something about the system the teacher uses to keep in touch.
When you're in the classroom, look for:
- A classroom library. Literacy-rich classrooms have lots of books for kids to read. Ideally, there would be books written on several different reading levels, and it would contain lots of different kinds of books.
- Evidence of kid writing. Look for a journal, a writing folder, or something that provides practice putting letter-sound knowledge to work.
- A place for the teacher to work in small groups. Instruction about learning to read is targeted to small groups with similar needs. Most teachers try to work with groups of 3-5 students at a table somewhere in the room. While some instruction takes place with the whole group, other instruction should be delivered to small, skill-based groups.
Back-to-school night may be early for some of these things to be in place. If you don't hear or see these important pieces for literacy learning in your child's classroom, talk with your child's teacher. For more information, go to Reading Rockets.
Get Involved! Contribute to Million Hours of Power
National PTA®'s MORESM (Men Organized to Raise Engagement) Alliance and the National Fatherhood Leaders Group have teamed up to launch A Million Hours of Power, an initiative to inspire 350,000 American men to dedicate three hours of service to the education, health and well-being of children. Learn how to contribute your volunteer hours.
Three hours of service from 350,000 men totals more than 1 million hours of true power to the lives of children. This will produce educational, social and physical benefits to kids across the nation. The Million Hours of Power campaign runs through the 2010-2011 school year. Working with the National Center for Fathering, PTA has a tracking tool that allows you to log your hours and watch the campaign's progress toward 1 million hours. If you have volunteered recently and would like to log your hours, go to Fathers.com to record your efforts toward a Million Hours of Power. For more information, go to PTA.org/millionhours.
Vote Today!
How to Help Your Child Study for Tests
Parenting's A+ Study Guide
Parenting magazine gives parents a subject-by-subject cheat sheet of study techniques to help their kids study smarter and beat exam anxiety. (Link will take you to parenting.com.)
October Safety Tip: Recall of Light-Up Rings and Star Glasses
National PTA and Consumer Reports have partnered to provide you with monthly safety tips and product recalls alerting you of possible dangers in your school or home. This voluntary recall may affect your PTA, as the toy was distributed at a number of PTA conventions and events.
Recently the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a voluntary recall of about 1.1 million Light-up Rings and 120,000 Star Glasses. If crushed or pulled apart, the plastic casing can break into small pieces and possibly expose the batteries, posing an ingestion hazard to children. If button cell batteries are ingested, they may be damaging to either the stomach, intestine, esophagus or nasal mucus membrane.
The rings were sold at Chuck E. Cheese's Restaurants from April 2009 through June 2010 and were distributed at PTA conventions. The ring measures 1-1/8 inches across and is made of plastic with a black elastic band. The ring comes in several colors — blue, green, purple, yellow, and pink. The back of the ring is fastened either with screws or glue.
Consumers should immediately take the Light-Up Ring away from children. These products can be returned to any Chuck E. Cheese in exchange for either a refund of $1 plus four Chuck E. Cheese tokens or a Soccer Promo-Cup plus four Chuck E. Cheese tokens. This can be done whether the individual received the product at Chuck E. Cheese or at a PTA convention.
For more information on this recall and for additional recalls and safety information go to clickcheckandprotect.org. Be sure to disseminate to your PTA and post this link to your local PTA website to let parents know to click, check and protect for safety.
PTA Briefs
National PTA and Parenting Partner to Help You Go Green!
National PTA® and Parenting magazine have teamed up to bring you "Small Steps, Big Difference - Your Guide to Going Green at Home and In School." It is a fun and informative eight-page magazine that offers parents and families tips and information on going green at home and at school. Find out how to order copies for your PTA or school.
The magazine was created to get PTAs, parents, and families alike to start thinking of small steps they can take to go green. Articles include:
- "Practice the Three R's — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,"
- "Take 'Eco-Action,'"
- "Green School Spirit,"
- "Up-Cycling."
A preview of the magazine is available online.
State, district, council or local PTAs can register to receive FREE copies of the magazine to distribute at events and to families in their communities. PTAs can share copies of the magazine at state PTA conventions or summer leadership institutes, or distribute them at local community centers, libraries, recreation centers, or other locations. Act fast. Quantities are limited.
Click here to place your order for FREE magazines for your school, state PTA, or your community.
Support PTA with Dora the Explorer
National PTA and Nickelodeon are partnering with iTunes for Dora's Beyond the Backpack! During the back-to-school season, all proceeds from episodes purchased from the Dora The Explorer Beyond The Backpack collection will be donated to the National PTA to support the educational success of all children. Get involved with the five festive episodes in which you can lend a hand for the big Backpack Parade, help your team win the Super Adventure Race, and celebrate friends helping friends. Click here to purchase these episodes.
PTA, Nickelodeon Provide Funding Opportunity with Big Help Grants
Through The Big Help, Nickelodeon will award $1 million in grants to schools and community organizations like PTAs, enabling kids around the country to achieve the goal of a million acts of help.
The Big Help Grant Program will support projects that inspire kids to
- take care of the environment,
- lead active, healthy lives,
- engage in community service, or
- improve their educational experience.
As a partner on this effort, local students can team up with their PTAs to apply for a $2,500 or $5,000 grant to support a project to improve their communities. For more information, visit the resources section of Nick.com/thebighelp
Apply Now for Take Your Family to School Week Grants
PTA will celebrate Take Your Family to School Week during February 13-19, 2011 with the purpose of expanding and enhancing family engagement in schools across the country. Thanks to the generosity of AXA Foundation, the sponsor of PTA's Take Your Family to School Week Grant Program, PTA will offer grants of $1,897 for PTAs to start programs, host events, and implement activities that welcome and engage families into the school community.
PTA's Take Your Family to School Week is celebrated each February to honor PTA's legacy of building family-school partnerships. These grants will be used to build positive partnerships with teachers and families, connect parents to their children's school experiences, and give children fun ways to share what they are learning and doing in class. PTAs in good standing are eligible to apply. Applications are due by 5 p.m. EDT, Friday, November 5, 2010. Click here to apply now.
Education Nation Scorecard — A Tool for Parents
PTA partnered with NBC News, GreatSchools, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other organizations to create the Education Nation Scorecard. The tool provides useful, clearly understandable information about performance at individual schools, in districts, states, and for the nation as a whole. Parents can use the tool to look up their child's school and to see how it compares to schools in the community, district, state, and nation. Parents can also use it to view graduation rates, NAEP scores, and to see if your state has adopted the Common Core State Standards, among other things. More importantly, parents can use this information to have conversations with their child's teacher to find out how they can support their child's education. Parents can find a list of questions on the scorecard under "What Can I Do?" to help start the conversation with your child's teacher or principal. Click here to visit the Education Nation Scorecard.
PTA Parent Digest
| Bullying | Bullying incidents have been in the headlines recently. Please be aware of PTA's resources on bullying prevention on PTA.org. |
| PTA Blog | Read PTA staffers' reflections on the importance of male involvement. |
| Great Idea Bank | Join discussions on this growing social network. New discussions include Reaching Out to Local Businesses and Success in Evening PTA Meetings. |